


old cigarettes | min yoongi

by snowyjoonie



Category: K-pop, 방탄소년단 | Bangtan Boys | BTS
Genre: Angst, Drama, F/M, Fanfiction, Fluff, Min Yoongi | Suga-centric, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-06
Updated: 2021-03-17
Packaged: 2021-03-17 19:00:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 21,503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29230389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snowyjoonie/pseuds/snowyjoonie
Summary: a little over a year after the death of your parents, you're struggling to keep your music store open and provide for your sister. after spotting him at one of your mini performances in a local park, yoongi makes your life turn. the question is though, is it for better? or for worse?
Comments: 1
Kudos: 9





	1. Chapter 1

a gentle breeze.

a hushed whisper.

this is what made up your early morning as you set yourself up in your usual park for another session of playing. every saturday, you would bring your equipment and set up in the chilly early morning when frost still lingered on the grass to promote your shop. business hadn't been that good recently, and since you had your little sister to manage the shop, you decided to have fun while gathering more customers.

you slid your guitar case off your shoulder after you'd set up your stool, microphone and the sign that gave directions to your shop. barely anyone was around the park at this hour, so you wouldn't start playing until you'd eaten your breakfast you'd brought with you. it was a shame no one came around to the park at this hour; you thought it was the prettiest time to be here. with the hushed color of the grass, the birds only just awakening to sing their song, and the gentle flowing of the nearby river. it was peaceful. it was quiet. just how you liked it.

as the breeze started to pick up, you tucked your long hair into your beanie so it wouldn't get in the way of your precious meal. sure, it was beautiful in the park at this hour, but it was also unbelievably cold this time of year. you unwrapped the foil on your sandwich and started eating. this would most likely be your only meal until the end of the day, so it was better to make the most of it.

after you'd finished your meal, shoving the plastic wrapping into the pocket of your coat, you plugged your guitar into the speaker, and strummed the nylon strings gently. the calming sound of your acoustic echoed throughout the trees, bouncing off the river. you plugged your microphone into the speaker as well, deciding to do a quick sound check. as the sound of your guitar filled the park, you couldn't deny that it was one of the most calming things in the world.

you'd written this song yourself, and it meant a lot to you. you continued the first verse and stopped when you got to the pre-chorus. you decided that would be the first song you would play. it matched the early atmosphere so well. all that was left was to wait. as you absentmindedly strummed the finger sequences for some of the songs you'd chosen to perform, the time flew faster than you thought.

soon, there were families and couples everywhere. those were the types of people that came to the park most often. sometimes there were lonely people, homeless people, and the like, but all the couples in the park especially made your heart drop. you knew what you'd lost. and there was no getting it back. a month after _he'd_ left, when you were out performing, you had to fight back tears when you looked at the couples who came and stayed for a song or two. but now, when you realized where your train of thought was going, you stopped yourself. you had neither the time or energy to deal with that loss.

which is exactly what you did today. shaking the thoughts out of your head, you picked up your guitar and sat down on your stool and started the song. people came by, some stayed for a couple of songs, and some even left money in your guitar case. but only a small handful gave your sign an interested look. at least some left money, so at least you could feed yourself.

you stopped performing a couple of times for drinks from the water bottle you always brought with you, but other than that, you continued your performance without stopping. sometime in the afternoon, you began to notice someone.

him.

this was a different him, but this one was always at your performances in the afternoon, and more often than not, left a generous amount of money. you had never seen him at your shop, but according to your sister, he had come in at one point and looked at the line of pianos lining the walls of the music shop, and even tapped out a tune a couple of times. he always came by when you weren't there, and that bothered you, as his money had fed you and your sister numerous times. you wanted to thank him.

you could stop performing after this song and go up to him, but you had attracted quite a large group now, and you didn't want to lose their attention. and besides, there would be no way to push your way to the back of the crowd where he was. you continued your performance, your gaze regularly straying back to him. he was wearing a mask to cover the bottom half of his face, like the ones people wear when they're sick. he always wore this mask, so you didn't even know what he looked like. with the way he was dressed, he looked like he didn't want to draw attention to himself.

when you finished your performance at four in the afternoon sharp, you didn't expect for him to still be standing there. you put your guitar down and moved your hair behind your shoulder from when it untucked itself at some point in the day. stuffing your hands in your coat after closing your guitar case with today's earnings, you turned around to find him standing a meter away from you. you had to admit, it was creepy how he had just walked up to you and you didn't hear it. you looked at him properly, up and down.

he was wearing a long coat, ripped jeans, and a white shirt. he was wearing a bucket hat, probably to hide the pale blue locks you could see peaking out from under it. but what caught your eye the most was his own eyes. the brown abyss of them were clouded with sorrow and kindness. of course, this confused you. why? and why was he just standing in front of you like a creep?

deciding to speak first, you did a polite bow. "thank you so much for all the money you've given me, you have no idea how much it has helped me and my sister." you righted yourself to look him in the eyes again.

you heard him take a deep breath through his mask. "you're welcome," he said, his voice sweet as honey. "i have six brothers, so i know what it's like to struggle with taking care of a family."

your eyes widened slightly. not only was this the first time you'd heard him speak, but you realized he had given you all this money, even when he had that many brothers to take care of. while you were dedicated to your thoughts, he reached a slightly shaky hand out of his pocket and handed you a couple of notes. automatically accepting it, your hands circled around the notes as your brain struggled to catch up.

by the time you had whipped your head up and comprehended that he'd given you this money when he had a family to take care of, _again_ , he was turning away, his feet dragging slightly on the stone path. the hand that had given you the money was still hanging out of his pocket. your feet thinking for you, you raced forward towards him. as you grabbed his wrist, he spun around to face you, confusion etched on what little you could see of his face.

you turned his pale hand around, pressing the notes into his open palm. "you have six brothers. you need it more than i do."

the man shook his head. "we have more than enough money now. trust me when i say you need it more than we do. you and your sister look so underfed."

you winced. yes, you were both underweight, probably bordering dangerously underweight. you both had large bags under your eyes and slightly sunken cheekbones. for a minute, you wondered how he knew what your sister looked like. then, you remembered, he'd visited the shop a couple of times when you weren't there. "at least tell me your name..." you muttered before your brain could stop your lips from moving.

he visibly stiffened, hesitating. this action made you immediately suspicious. who hesitates to tell someone their name? you had obviously narrowed your eyes at him as he looked slightly panicked before mumbling something.

"pardon?"

he mumbled the words again, but this time it was loud enough for you to catch. "min yoongi."

"huh. that name sounds kinda familiar. well, thanks, i guess. make sure you come by the shop when i'm around next time, okay?" with that, you left yoongi with his notes pressed into his hand.

you packed your equipment, putting the money you earned in a pocket of your suitcase that you used to carry your microphone and speaker and zipping it tightly to make room room for your guitar. by the time you were packed up and making your way out of the park to get some food, yoongi was nowhere to be found.


	2. Chapter 2

you pulled open the back door to your shop with great difficulty, the frost of the oncoming winter having practically frozen the door shut. you locked the back door after you heaved your suitcase into the back room of the music shop, brushing yourself off before heading into the main shop floor.

"jin-ae!" you called to your sister as you took your shoes off, leaving them by the door. you weaved your way past the various musical instruments and stands of sheet music to the set of stairs behind the counter. that was where you lived. you and your sister shared a flat on top of your shop, one of the few things your parents had left you.

hearing nothing in reply, you scowled. "jin-ae!" you repeated, louder, up at the flat as you checked the sign on the store door. it was still on the open sign from the front. sighing, you turned it around so the closed sign jin-ae had made ages ago in elegant red script faced the front. you loved your sister with all your heart, but you had to admit, it did feel like lately you were the only one pulling your weight around here.

you stormed up the stairs, not having nearly enough patience to deal with this. your mind had been racing ever since your encounter with yoongi, and all you wanted to do at that moment was sleep. your flat was small, having only a combined kitchen and small living room, and a small hallway that separated into two rooms and a bathroom. one for you, and one for your sister.

you knocked loudly on jin-ae's door, shouting her name. knowing your sister, she'd probably finished up the shop an hour before closing time and was now on her phone with her headphones on, making the phone bill way more than it needed to be, and way more than you could afford. after there was no answer, you opened the door, your pissed expression clearly showing on your face as your sister fumbled around at the sudden movement at the door.

"you gonna explain yourself?" you said, folding your arms and leaning against the door frame. jin-ae opened and closed her mouth a couple of times, but said nothing. after a while, she hung her head discretely trying to hide her phone and headphones under the covers of her bed.

"don't bother hiding it," you scowled and she stopped trying. "did anyone come by today?"

jin-ae nodded slightly. "y-yeah," she began, getting up from her bed, "that man i was telling you about that plays one of the pianos sometimes. he came in and asked for 'the girl who plays guitar in the park' so i had to tell him that you were out."

"huh." you nodded to yourself slightly, biting your bottom lip. you still didn't quite know what to think about the whole yoongi situation.

"that reminds me," jin-ae said, brushing her brown hair behind her ear, "that was the first time i'd heard his voice before. it sounded familiar and it took me awhile to realize, but," she leant in close to you, "he totally sounds like suga, the idol from BTS." jin-ae leant away again, putting a hand over her mouth to hide her excited giggles.

you blinked. "who?" if he was famous, that would explain the bucket hat and mask. but if he was famous, why would he want to take time out of his schedule to see your performances?

your little sister gasped at you. "suga is only apart of the world's most famous k-pop group, who's real name is min yoongi and he was born on the 9th of march, 1993-"

"wait, what was his real name?" you said, interrupting her over-obsessed speech.

jin-ae looked at you for a second. "min yoongi. why?"

it hit you like a car. min yoongi, the man you finally met for the first time this afternoon, was in fact the famous idol suga, and was also the man who'd practically been supporting the two of you for a while now. he was apparently also the man your little sister seemed to be obsessed over. you clicked your tongue. "oh." you dragged the word out, as if it could convey all your answered questions at once.

"come on, let's make dinner. i've got a story for you." you said, turning out of your sister's room to dump your coat and to change into more casual night clothes before making dinner. both of you started cooking dinner with little to no conversation after you denied telling your story until you both were sitting at the table.

after about ten minutes, dinner was ready and jin-ae sat opposite you on the floor, her hands hard pressed against the wooden table. you calmly took a sip of your tea as jin-ae stared at you, seeing if she could make you tell her the story via telepathy. taking a deep breath, you relayed what had happened that afternoon. by the time you were finished, jin-ae's mouth was hanging open.

"i'm so jealous!" she whined, scrunching her hands to her face. "not only is _the_ suga coming to your performances, but you even held his hand!"

you almost choked on the bit of meat you were swallowing. "what? it wasn't like that."

"oh, really?" jin-ae wiggled her eyebrows. "are you sure you don't have any feelings for him?"

"i'm not one of those young adult fiction protagonists who falls in love with the first man she sees, jin-ae," you took another sip of your tea, burning the roof of your mouth. "so, how's studying going?" you said, changing the subject hastily. your sister was in her final year of high school. she was bright, but you couldn't afford to send her to a proper school, instead she had to go to a public school.

"good... it would be better if our parents were here, though, since we're learning about drugs and the like in physical education." she said, taking a bite of her meal. maybe it was just you, but you swore there was a hint of malice behind her words.

"you know neither of us could control happened to them." you said, trying to soften your gaze.

jin-ae sighed. "i know, it's just... you dried your tears quickly, so now i feel weak."

"i dried my tears quickly so i could get to work and help us not starve since you know, we were - well, _are_ \- technically orphans." you said, taking another drink. "it's a shame all their money they left behind went to waste so quickly."

jin-ae flinched. she knew very well what had happened to all your parents' money, as she was the one who spent it out partying with her friends. "i'm... going back to my room now," she said, quietly getting up and placing her plate in the sink before locking herself in her room again.

"don't use too much time on the phone, and it's your turn to wash the dishes." you shouted over your shoulder. you shook your head to yourself. a secret part of you still held a grudge over jin-ae spending all your inheritance. she didn't even tell you that she did either, you just checked the bank account one day to find it all gone. and when you confronted her about it, she cried. but that didn't stop you from yelling at her. after all, how could she be so stupid? the both of you had inherited your parents' money after they'd died in a car crash a little over a year ago. you were in the car with them at the time, but the worst you suffered was a broken leg and arm. it had made you feel incredibly guilty for a long time, but you soon realized you now had to look after jin-ae now that your parents weren't around, so you repressed it as much as you could and saved your tears.

a knocking on the door downstairs interrupted your thought train. "i'll get it!" you yelled to your sister as you quickly grabbed your coat and walked down the stairs, even though you didn't expect her to get it anyway. there was a man silhouetted against the shop door, and you silently prayed it wasn't a robber. but then again, what kind of robber knocks?

you opened the shop door, pushing your hair behind your ear and began your, "sorry, sir, we're closed," spiel before you stopped mid-sentence. you silently gaped. of course.

min yoongi, or better known as suga, was standing in front of you.


	3. Chapter 3

"what the fuck are _you_ doing here? and at this hour?" you said, squinting up at the aqua haired male. he'd taken off his bucket hat and his mask, probably since it was late and literally no one was going to recognize him. except for maybe your sister, who was creeping down the stairs to see what all the noise was.

you heard a gasp behind you and put your hand against your forehead as you felt a rush of wind and your sister curling her arms around your free arm. you let out a long-suffering sigh. "jin-ae, didn't you say you were going to your room?"

jin-ae made a 'hmph,' noise and tightened her grip on your arm. yoongi looked almost amused at her. you sighed again, only louder. "you're obviously not here for an instrument, so what do you want?"

yoongi locked eyes with you. those same eyes you'd seen only mere hours earlier entrapped you. you wondered what had happened to him to have a permanent look of sorrow in his eyes. "i need to talk to you."

you raised an eyebrow, obviously wanting more information. but as the three of you waited in the cool night, you realized you weren't going to get it if you left him standing out there in the cold. "come on up, then. i'll make tea." you relented and jin-ae made a small squeal before running upstairs. you shook your head at her as you led yoongi through the shop and up the stairs. you took off your coat and hung it on the coat hanger by the stairs and nodded at yoongi to do the same. your sister was starting the teapot as you walked into the living room and gestured for the man to take a seat opposite you.

a couple of minutes passed by in silence before jin-ae brought three fresh cups of tea and set them on the table, taking a seat herself. "so, what was it you wanted to talk about?" you said, taking a sip of your tea as yoongi stared into his own, thinking. at the sound of your voice, his head snapped upwards.

"w-well," he stumbled as you noticed jin-ae creeping closer to the idol out of the corner of your eye, "i wanted to give you the money you handed back to me this afternoon."

you put your tea cup down on the table, furrowing your brow. "are we still having this conversation? i'm not taking the money. you have people to look after too."

yoongi inched closer to the edge of the table, away from jin-ae as she inched closer still. "can you stop?" he said, scowling at her.

jin-ae didn't look very hurt until you spoke up. "jin-ae, go back to your room. you're being very rude to our guest."

she scoffed at you, but as she turned around to see your rather intimidating face with an eyebrow raised at her, she scurried off to her room, sulking. you sighed, letting your annoyance leave you. "so, where were we?"

"take the money." yoongi said, sliding the crumpled notes across the table to you. "please."

you sighed, finally giving in. "well, if it helps you sleep at night." you reached out a hand to take the money. "is there anything else you wanted? or, did you just come here to give me money?"

"i suppose there is one more thing." he said, pulling his own white sleeves down. you looked up from the crumpled bills in your hand to look him in the eye. "don't tell anyone i've been going to your performances. that would mean bad publicity. not to mention a possible scandal."

"understandable. i can do that, and i'll bribe my sister to keep her mouth shut. can you leave so i can sleep now?" you finished, being rude yourself. but you had to get up early tomorrow to clean the shop, and the last thing you needed was to be entertaining guests for the next three hours.

yoongi rose from the ground after you and grabbed his coat on the way down. as you led him downstairs and to the door of your shop, you could feel his gaze glaring into the back of your neck. you rubbed it self-consciously. if there was one thing you didn't like, it was people staring or breathing down the back of your neck. you reached the door and waved him through. just as you were about to close the door on him, he stuck his foot in the doorway.

"what's your name?" he asked as you raised an eyebrow at him.

"nari." you said bluntly, shutting the door as he removed his foot. you had a lot to think about tonight. the first thing on your to-do list should be seeing who BTS was, because they were obviously famous. as you went through the hallway of the flat, you dully noticed that your sister's door was closed. which wasn't really a surprise in itself, but you did feel slightly bad for kicking her out of the conversation with her favorite idol.

you turned off the light in the main room and shut your door. your room was littered with sheet music, various books that had left their bookshelf, and a piano in the corner. your bed faced the window that gave you a nice view of the street, but there wasn't much to look at on the street in the first place. you grabbed your phone off nightstand and did a quick google search. within a couple of minutes, you knew who BTS were, who the members were and had even listened to some of their music. you quite liked it, but you were more used to your grandparents' classical music from holidays spent in the music shop.

deciding on not using all the data on your phone unlike your sister, you turned your phone off and turned to your bombsite of a room. you picked up several pages of sheet music and returned them to their original place on top of the piano and your journal full of lyrics on top of that. after you'd picked up the rest of the books littering your room, you realized how late it had gotten. after such a long day, it was definitely time for a long sleep.

as the sounds of the night lullabied you to sleep, you thought long and hard about what had happened today. there was a lot, that was for sure. replaying the day in your head like a movie, you slowly drifted off to sleep.


	4. Chapter 4

the annoying sound of your alarm clock brought you to your senses. with a groan, you rolled over and tried to find the clock, slamming your hand over every surface in reach. after finally finding it and it turning off with a beep, you decided you should probably drag yourself out of bed even if you were wishing for a few more hours of blissful unconsciousness.

you opened the door to your room and walked to the kitchen, kicking jin-ae's door and shouting, "wake up!" as you went through. there was a series of grumbles from the other side of the door, but she soon followed you out and started helping you make breakfast in the kitchen. neither of you were morning people, but you had to take care of the shop.

after you'd both had your breakfast and gotten dressed, you headed downstairs. you chucked a washcloth to jin-ae, and grabbed a broom yourself. you both started cleaning in silence. jin-ae hadn't said anything to you since you kicked her out of your conversation with yoongi the previous night. in fact, if you hadn't kicked her door this morning, she'd probably still be in her room, refusing to talk to you or even look at you.

it took the good part of an hour to clean the shop, and after you were done, you turned the sign on the door over. you were still tired, but at least now you were fully awake. you turned on the small radio the two of you had sitting on the counter as a couple of customers walked in. as your sister directed them around the shop, you fiddled around with the dials, trying to find a good station. you weren't exactly in the mood for classical today, so you wanted to find a pop station to keep up on the music that was playing nowadays. after all, it might improve jin-ae's mood.

the song that was playing when you found the right station was a couple of years old, but you recognized it. EXO's Lotto. you hummed along mindlessly as you sorted things out behind the counter. soon an old man came up to pay for a new set of violin strings, and the day was well underway.

the day passed without anything interesting happening as you and jin-ae switched places for manning the counter and helping people a couple of times.

"jin-ae, i'm going out to get lunch. do you want anything?" you asked, grabbing your coat from upstairs.

"just get me a pie or something, i don't really care." jin-ae said, clicking her tongue. that was the first thing she'd said to you all day. shrugging, you headed out the door. the cool winter wind hit you instantly. pulling your coat closer to you, you headed down the street to your usual café.

you'd been going to this café ever since your parents had started sending you to get lunch a couple of years ago. most of the staff there knew you by name and the exact order you would place. the little bell at the top of the door chirped as you entered the cozy shop. you ran a hand through your messy hair as you made your way and joined the queue.

soon you were at the front, deciding to order a coffee and cake for yourself and staying to eat before getting your sister a pie on the way out. you had a little chat about the weather to the barista as she made your coffee, and after she was done, you made your way to your favorite lounge chair by the window.

you were only two bites into your slice of cake before you noticed you were being watched. your eyes scanned the coffee shop over the top of your plate, looking at every customer. as well as _them_. there was a group of men, all wearing masks and looking at you. as soon as your glare met their stares, they turned around at their table and started whispering to each other.

you sighed, hurriedly finishing your meal and coffee before getting the pie for your sister. even as you left the shop, you could still feel their gazes stabbing you through the window. you stuffed the warm pie under your coat so it didn't get cold and practically ran back to the music shop. as you entered, you let out a breath you didn't know you were holding. that was _creepy_.

"jin-ae, i brought your pie!" you called out through the shop. no answer. you shook your head. if she was on her phone again, this time she really needed a punishment. you tried to be easy on jin-ae, but there was a line between what you were willing to put up with and what was downright unacceptable.

just as you were about to storm up the stairs in a fit of anger, you heard a small, "over here!" from the back. not bothering to take your coat off, you headed out the back to find jin-ae, struggling to lift a heavy box.

"what are you doing with that?" you asked, all shreds of your previous anger completely vanished. you put jin-ae's bag with the pie in it on top of the box as you helped her lift it. carefully, you both carried it out just past the door to the main shop floor. you handed jin-ae her pie as you opened the box to find several packets of string, rosin, and a whole stack of polishing cloths. on their own, they wouldn't have weighed much, but together it felt like your arms were going to snap off.

jin-ae looked at you. "can i go upstairs to eat?"

"yeah, just come back down in around fifteen minutes. and don't-"

"-use too much of the phone data. yeah, i know." she finished for you, flashing a quick and somewhat apologetic smile before retreating upstairs. even if you wanted to start sorting out the contents of the box, you couldn't as you heard the creak of the door opening.

"coming!" you shouted, subconsciously tidying your hair with one hand as you made your way to the door. but, as you saw who was in the entrance, you stopped dead.

it was _them_.

the men from the café.


	5. Chapter 5

now that the men from the coffee shop were standing in front of you, you could clearly count how many there were. seven. a couple were looking around the shop curiously. one with blonde hair and a white sweater looked through pages of sheet music on the stands, putting them back carefully after seeing what songs were inside. another with black hair and a tall posture made his way over to the guitars, only looking with his eyes. the rest of them eyed the shop with curiosity but never left each other's side.

you sighed heavily. as much as you wanted to immediately kick the group out, they were customers, and if you wanted to keep eating, you needed more customers. "can i help you guys with anything?" you said, plastering one of your customer smiles on.

one of them opened their mouth to say something, but was interrupted by the sound of several of the sheet music books falling off the shelf. you glared at the blonde, who backed away from the stand with his hands up as if to say, 'i didn't do it!'

you made your way over there with quick strides, picking up the books and putting them back where they belonged. "can i help you with anything?" you repeated, asking more forcefully.

the same member from before opened his mouth but was cut off by a red head who bounced over to you. "we just wanted to see who our suga was talking about," he opened his arms for a hug but you stopped him with a glare that said, 'touch me, and i paint the walls with your blood.'

you looked back to the group of them, finally spotting him. he'd taken off his mask and hat, placing them on the small coat hanger you had by the door in case customers wanted to hang their coats up. "fine, fine. you guys can stay, look around, whatever. just please... don't break anything." you said, ending with an exasperated look at the blonde who had knocked over your sheet music.

just as you were about to go back to the box to sort it out, one of the members spoke up. turning around, you realized it was the one who had been trying to speak twice but got cut off. "it would be rude not to introduce ourselves first. i'm kim namjoon, stage name RM. it's nice to meet you."

you raised an eyebrow. "nice to meet you." you replied shortly.

next the blonde came forward. "i'm park jimin. sorry for making a mess of the sheet music."

sighing, you shook your head. "it's fine." of course, it wasn't fine, as you hated it when people made a mess of your shop. but you had to at least act nice, even if all you wanted to do was kick them out.

next, a brown haired male walked up to you and offered a hand to shake. you took it as he flashed you a smile that probably would have made your sister faint. "jeon jungkook. pleasure to meet you."

"i'm kim seokjin," the one with the black hair said from his spot over near the guitars. "or just jin." he finished his introduction by blowing a kiss your way. he was attractive, sure, just maybe not your type.

while your attention had been drawn to the four who had just introduced themselves, you failed to notice the member with silver hair who made his way over to the pianos. as he spoke up, you jumped, spinning around to face him. "kim taehyung." he said shortly, running his fingers delicately over the keys of a piano.

the one who had wanted a hug before tapped your shoulder, grinning brighter than the sun. "jung hoseok. nice to meet you!"

you didn't know it was possible to be this exasperated with a group of people, but you were very quickly finding that out. after they'd all introduced themselves, they dispersed into the shop, looking around. jin-ae, wondering what all the commotion was, came downstairs. when she poked her head down, she almost had a heart attack on the spot. there, littering your shop, was all of the members of her favorite idol group. as she squealed, everyone directed their attention to her. out of the corner of your eye, you could see yoongi shuffle behind jin discretely, which bought an amused smile to your face.

"jin-ae, do you mind helping me unpack the box before you start your little fangirl session?" you said, stuffing your hands in the pockets of your coat that you still hadn't had the time to take off. your remark was met with a few grumbles, but jin-ae helped you unpack the box nonetheless.

after you were done, you waved a hand at her as if to say, 'be free.' as the wind whistled as she took off, you snickered a bit, wondering how the idols were going to cope with your tornado of a little sister. you watched in amusement as jin-ae went around to each of the members and hugged them. as she made her way across the room, you noticed yoongi staying as far away from her as possible. soon he came to stand beside you at your spot in front of the wall of string instruments, observing your sister and her chaotic reign over the room. the two of you stood there in comfortable silence until a familiar intro to a song entered the room via the radio.

jin-ae spun around to make eye contact with you as the first verse started. "nari, remember our deal?" you groaned. the both of you had made a deal a couple of years back when she first introduced you to the idol group Red Velvet. whenever one of their songs came on, the shop would turn into your own little stage, the both of you dancing and singing along. now both of you knew the choreography to almost every song by them. you turned to yoongi and shrugged off your coat. "can you hold this?" he wordlessly grabbed it as you and your sister made your way to the center of the room. the chorus for Russian Roulette was coming up soon.

you both sung and danced the chorus with perfect synchronization. when you performed, you always had this spectacular smile on that drew your audience in, which is exactly what it was doing to the boys in the shop. as soon as the song ended, your audience smile dropped and you went back to yoongi to get your coat, trying to hide the fact that your ears were burning red out of embarrassment.


	6. Chapter 6

a couple of the members walked up to jin-ae, praising her dancing. you knew your dancing definitely was not up to scratch, but that was probably because you didn't dance along to music for hours on end at night like your sister did. it was better this way, anyway, since your sister thrived off the attention and praise of other people.

as you and yoongi watched your sister be showered by praise from the other members, he quietly spoke up, but loud enough so you could hear him. "i like your voice a lot." 

"thanks. my dancing's not as good as jin-ae's, but at least my voice is nicer." yoongi nodded in response. "i'm going upstairs to get myself a drink, do you want anything?" it was obvious the group was not going to be leaving for a while at this rate.

"yeah, a coffee would be good if you have any." yoongi said, scratching the back of his neck as he watched the other members.

you nodded and headed upstairs, finally getting a chance to put your coat away. the top you were wearing went off the shoulders, which wasn't really a good idea considering it was winter, but you figured that when you wanted to go outside, you would take your coat. you quickly brewed two cups of coffee and brought them down with you. by the time you went back down, the members that still had their masks on had taken them off, and were now in a heated argument with your sister about the most attractive member. yoongi stood off to the side, not really willing to get involved as he eyed the pianos.

as you headed off in his direction, you caught a few lines of the argument.

"it's obviously me." jin said confidently, blowing a kiss.

jin-ae cleared her throat. "i think it's a tie between jungkook and jimin." she gestured to the two, who seemed to almost puff out their chests as jin went back to the guitars, dejected.

"what do you think, nari?" taehyung said, and all heads turned to you as you handed yoongi his coffee. you raised an eyebrow as jin-ae added in, "yeah! who do you think is more attractive, jimin or jungkook?"

"honestly?" everyone nodded. "i think it's suga."

yoongi almost choked on his coffee next to you as jin-ae puffed. "i meant between the two i mentioned, not out of everyone!" she whined. "you should make a list of who's the most attractive to who's the least attractive."

you paused for a moment. "but i don't want to make anyone feel bad..."

"mmm." jin-ae hummed in response. "that's true, i guess. you guys are all so cute though, how did we get so lucky to land you guys as friends? are we in a harem?"

you shook your head with a smile on your face and moved over to the pianos to sit down on one of the stools. no other customers came in for the day, and the time that you were open passed quicker than you thought it would. after the old antique cuckoo clock your grandparents had had ever since your parents were born chimed four times, you finally realized how late it was.

you got up from your seat and stretched, leaving your long empty coffee cup on top of the piano. "hate to kick you guys out, but it's closing time and i would quite like to eat tonight." the members whispered to themselves in a huddle for a minute as you went to stand beside your sister.

namjoon finally turned around after they'd finished. "would you like to join us for dinner? we have a place at a diner booked."

"i would rather sle-" "we'd love to!" jin-ae interrupted, elbowing you in the stomach.

and with that, the nine of you headed down the street. you'd gotten your coat from upstairs, but the night air was still way too cold. you found yourself walking side by side with yoongi at the end of the pack. in front of you, was jimin, jungkook, and jin-ae, talking about idols and shows. in front of them, hoseok and taehyung were having a weird conversation that you couldn't quite make out, but they were both making very weird hand gestures. at the front, namjoon and jin walked along like two parents responsible for their kids.

deciding to break the silence between the two of you, yoongi spoke up. "what kind of music do you like?"

"i like ballads a lot since they fit my voice well, but i also like hip hop a lot. i can't rap to save my life, though." you added with a giggle. "yourself?"

"i like hip hop too. i mainly listen to western rappers."

you nodded along at his words. you didn't listen to that much music nowadays out of fear of spending too much money on phone bills or CDs. but when your parents were still alive, you listened to quite a lot of music since they the bills covered. you still had some music left over on your phone, but you didn't really listen to it anymore. "hey, i wanted to ask, why do you come to my performances so often if you're really busy from being an idol?"

yoongi dragged his feet along the stone path while he walked. at your words, he looked up from where his gaze was placed on the ground to lock eyes with you. "i like your voice, and i'm not that busy on saturdays."

you had a sneaky suspicion that he was lying, but you had no time to confront him as the group crossed the street, coming to a stop in front of a small diner. namjoon waved the group in one at a time, and the waitress beckoned you to a table in the back. there were still people in the restaurant, but it was hard to recognize the group when they had their masks and hats on. the table in the back was hidden by a curtain, and it was a low to the ground table with cushions surrounding it. somehow, you found yourself jammed between jin and suga. you sighed. it was going to be a long night. but hey, at least there was free food.


	7. Chapter 7

soon, food was being served. amazing delicacies ranging from seafood to pastas to salad. your mouth watered at the mere sight of it. you wasted no time in loading your plate with almost everything the diner had to offer. suga raised an amused eyebrow as jin copied your actions.

without much conversation, the nine of you ate until you were full. very soon, you were politely wiping your mouth with a napkin and trying not to doze off. when you were full, often you would fall asleep almost instantly, which would be disastrous since you would most likely end up on yoongi or jin's shoulder. or worse yet, one of their laps.

after everyone had finished eating, jin-ae clapped her hands excitedly, signaling that she wanted to say something while swallowing her last bite of food. with a gulp, she hurriedly stumbled over her words. "i know! why don't we play truth or dare, combined with spin the bottle?"

"but we don't have any bottles, only cups." you bluntly pointed out through a yawn. you were trying to get her to stop playing the game, because you knew the moment the bottle landed on you, jin-ae would dare you to do something, most likely inappropriate, with one of the members. and if you chose truth, jin-ae would make you share something as equally embarrassing.

wordlessly, jin-ae folded a napkin into a tall triangle and stuck it in a cup, making the cup usable for the game. she gave a triumphant smirk as you groaned, placing your head on the table. "now then! i'll go first!"

your sister spun the uh... 'bottle' and you silently prayed for it not to land on you. as if God was answering your prayers, the bottle landed squarely on jimin. jin-ae grinned. "jimin, truth or dare?"

the blonde thought for a minute. "truth."

jin-ae looked slightly disappointed. "hmm. if all the members were girls, who would you date?"

jimin played with his sleeves as he thought. "i think... either jin or suga." next, jimin spun the bottle. it narrowly missed you and landed on yoongi. "truth or dare?" jimin said cutely.

"dare." suga said shortly.

"i dare you to pick either the person on your left or right and act like a couple with them for the rest of the night."

on his left: jin-ae. on his right: you. suga nodded to you. you made a small squeak. how did couples act again? right, hugging, cuddling, holding hands and... kissing. yoongi grabbed your hand under the table and intertwined your fingers. you swore your heart was racing a million miles an hour.

"hang on, shouldn't we be able to see how they act as a couple? just so we know you two won't stop halfway through?" jin-ae said, wiggling her eyebrows.

"well, what do you want me to do? rest my head on his shoulder?" you said sarcastically, glaring at her.

"actually, yeah, that'd be great."

fuck. you'd gotten yourself into more than you signed up for you thought as you gently rested your head on suga's shoulder. you were trying extremely hard to hide your ears that were currently burning up, and silently prayed jin-ae wouldn't notice and make fun of you. as suga spun the bottle with his other hand, you noticed how comfortable it was with your head on his shoulder, like you could achieve your dream of sleeping.

you dully noticed as the bottle landed on namjoon. "truth or dare?" suga asked.

"dare." the younger replied, running a hand through his hair.

"i dare you to get your knife and dice that onion on your plate." namjoon, had in fact, left a couple of pieces of onion on his plate. what he'd dared sounded fairly easy to do, but as namjoon picked up his knife and held it upside down, it was clear to you why he'd dared him to do that.

jin rushed out of his seat next to you to his side. "no!" he delicately directed namjoon's knife the right way around. at jin's careful direction, namjoon successfully diced the onion into... creative chunks.

pushing the onions into a neat pile on his plate, namjoon spun the bottle. it spun around a couple of times before coming to a stop on jin-ae. "truth or dare?"

"truth." you tried to glare at her around yoongi. of course she'd pick truth.

"why are you and nari so poor?" namjoon asked with innocent curiosity. you both stiffened.

"are you okay to answer, jin-ae?" you asked, temporarily taking your head off yoongi's shoulder to look at her. her eyes were blank as she shook her head, her mind in another place.

you cleared your throat and leaned forward, putting suga's hand that was still intertwined with yours on your leg. "our parents died in a car crash a little over a year ago," you began, swallowing. "i was in the car as well, but the worst i suffered was a broken arm and leg. we were left with their inheritance of course, but we were young and reckless and jin-ae spent it out partying with her friends. since then, we've been barely scraping by with the money we earn from the shop and my performances in the park."

your story was met with silence across the table. yoongi gave your hand a comforting squeeze as you settled back down onto his shoulder. several of the members looked down at their laps or fiddled with their sleeves. jin-ae shook her head and tried for a smile. "s-so, shall we continue?" but she gave no room for argument as she reached forward and spun the cup.

soon laughter and smiles returned returned to the table as jin-ae asked hoseok to reveal the weirdest thing about his roommate. even as the game passed, you were slightly out of it, dozing off on yoongi's shoulder, feeling the warmth of his hand and the way he subconsciously ran his thumb over your knuckles.


	8. Chapter 8

sooner than you thought, the night came to an end and the waitress from before poked her head in to inform you that the rest of the guests had left, leaving it free for you to go without getting attacked. the nine of you walked out of the diner into the chilly night air.

as you shivered, jin-ae spoke up. "don't forget about your dare, suga. don't you know what a gentleman does when his girlfriend is cold?" both you and suga glared at her.

"but, isn't holding hands enough?" you whined as he added in, "it's too cold to give her my jacket." but unbeknownst to each other, you were both enjoying the time you had as a 'couple.' jin-ae merely rolled her eyes in response and turned to chat with jin.

"suga and nari, sitting-" jungkook began before both of you turned around at the same time, shutting him up with glares that could cut through steel. or perhaps human flesh if you tried hard enough.

you hummed the tune to one of your songs as they moved along the street to the shop. suga, recognizing the tune, hummed along with you.

the two of you hummed along together as the group walked on, watching the occasional car pass through. all your worries temporarily left your mind in that moment, just being content holding yoongi's hand and humming along.

but soon, that moment came to a close as you arrived at your shop. jin-ae reached to open the door, but seemed to remember something and spun around to face you with a gleam in her eyes. "what was it that couples did at the end of the night to say goodbye?"

you swallowed long and hard. you knew _exactly_ what couples did to say goodbye. _kiss_. you glared at jin-ae as you tried to calm your rushing heart. "d-do we have to?"

she smirked, sensing how uncomfortable you were under her and the members' pressing stares. "can it just be on the back of the hand?" suga butted in, probably saving the both of you as jin-ae sighed and rolled her eyes.

taking that as a 'yes,' he gently took your hand and delicately placed a kiss on the back of it. just like _he_ used to. you smiled and walked towards the shop, trying to keep your composure, which was very hard to do considering you were shaking badly. jin-ae smirked at you, apparently not seeing anything wrong.

"come visit soon!" she said, waving the group off as you unlocked and opened the door to the dark shop. you looked back only once, smiling sweetly at yoongi who'd retreated behind namjoon and jin like a nervous kid. jin-ae soon followed you back into the shop, closing the door after her.

"so, how'd you enjoy your couple experience?" she said, wiggling her eyebrows again.

you rolled your eyes. "yeah, yeah. i'm going to bed now. super tired."

you retreated up the stairs as quickly as you could as jin-ae whined behind you. "aw, c'mon. tell me all the details!" ignoring her pleas as she chased you up the stairs, you slammed the door to your room. your "couple experience" reminded you way too much of _him_. you shouldn't even be thinking about _him_ , after all, _he_ was the one who abandoned you.

 _he_ was your ex. back when you got into the car crash that killed your parents, while you were in the hospital, he never came once to visit you. only jin-ae did, on occasion. when she wasn't out with her friends, spending the inheritance. after you'd gotten out of the hospital, you had messaged him, saying that they were over, even if you still loved him dearly. you'd ached for weeks, but you realized jin-ae needed you.

you stuffed your tears in a box, and threw the box out the window. there was no time for tears when taking care of two people on little to no money.

you still had your back pressed against the door. there was no way you could sleep now, even if a mere half an hour ago you almost fell asleep on yoongi's shoulder. you decided that after jin-ae was asleep, you would go outside for a walk. the only problem would be sneaking out. you peeked down at the bottom of your door, seeing darkness. she must've turned the lights off and gone to bed. now's a better time than never, you decided, delicately opening your door, trying not to make it creak and snuck down the stairs, narrowly avoiding the step that made a really loud noise specifically when you didn't want it to.

now you were on the shop floor. you made your way to the back door, careful not to step on anything. your boots made a noise on the wood planks on the floor, and you winced every time. thankfully, it seemed jin-ae didn't notice. prying the back door open, you were soon faced with icy wind swirling through the back alley. you forgot it was like a wind tunnel at night.

stuffing your hands in the pockets of your coat, you walked down, not really sure where you were going. you soon came to the entrance to your usual park. the gate wasn't closed like it should be at this hour, so you walked right on through. here in the park, your boots could make as much noise as they wanted and no one was going to hear. besides, even if someone was in the park at this hour, which they wouldn't be, they'd think it was an animal.

you heard a squeaky laugh a little more than a couple of meters away. stopping dead in your tracks and hiding behind the closest tree, you listened to the conversation of a group moving through the park.

"i've got another one! what did the cow say to the calf?" you stiffened. you were certain you'd heard that voice before...

a chorus of groans echoed throughout the park as one of them said, "what?"

"it's... _pasture_ bedtime." another squeaky laugh came after that and a series of groans.

"can't we talk about something else?" said another someone. but this someone's voice you recognized. you peaked around the tree to see if you were right. and you were. BTS was right there, walking through the park.


	9. Chapter 9

"can't we talk about something else?" suga said, groaning at jin's lame dad jokes.

"why don't we talk about your little evening with nari? or how you keep ditching practice to see her? hmm?" jin immediately countered. suga paled a little, but kept his mouth shut.

"do you think suga's in _love_?" hoseok said mockingly, moving in close to almost whisper in the older's ear.

suga jumped back, rubbing his ear free of the spit. "no." he said emotionlessly, but the members still caught his (very obvious) blush. meanwhile, you were still hiding behind your tree a few meters away, having a minor heart attack. you were at a pure loss for words as you kept listening to their conversation.

"he's blushing!" taehyung shouted, making suga blush more.

jimin bounced over to namjoon, disrupting him from his thoughts as he held his hand up to namjoon as if he was holding a microphone. "as the leader, do you think suga has feelings for nari?"

"it's not like he could date her if he wanted to anyway, since our schedules are too busy." namjoon said, pulling out his phone. "besides, i doubt the manager would like it."

"true. but, how did he like his little taste tonight? he seemed awfully happy." jin said, putting a hand on suga's shoulder, who'd sped up, trying to run away.

"how can you tell?" jungkook said, suddenly joining the conversation.

"because, i was his roommate when we first started, remember? you get to know him better and after a while, you can tell." jin replied happily, dragging suga back to the group like a mother reeling in her child.

as the group neared you, you hurriedly pulled out your earbuds and plugged them into your phone, bringing up some of your music that you'd bought a few years back. you started walking, as if you never noticed them.

"hey, look! there she is! nari!" you heard shouts from behind you and you tried to calm your heart that was racing as you turned around to the group, pulling out an earbud. hoseok was waving you over. you sighed, pretending to be annoyed and as if you hadn't heard their conversation as you walked over, stopping your music.

suga pouted as jin kept a firm hand on his shoulder. his attempts had noticeably gotten smaller as they'd spotted you. jin seemed to notice and smirked as you drew near. "we were just talking about you. why are you even out this late?"

you shrugged, knowing full well they were talking about you. "i wanted to have a walk. the park at this time is pretty."

taehyung grinned, the gleam in his eyes matching jin-ae's from earlier. "why don't we get the lady in question's opinion?" jimin, hoseok, and jungkook matched his smirk.

you raised an eyebrow, pretending to have no clue what they were talking about.

"they were talking about whether or not suga has feelings for you or not." namjoon interjected, not looking up from his phone.

this time, you didn't even bother to hide your feelings. "h-huh?"

as you blushed bright red, taehyung started shouting again. "requited love! requited love!" he repeated, over and over again. the blush on your cheeks worsened as you grabbed the pair of scissors you always kept in your coat and chased after him. the two of you ran around the park, the other members watching you two from afar. soon you were puffed out and returned to the members, bringing your coat closer to you.

"why do you have scissors in your coat?" jin asked suspiciously.

"for opening boxes." you replied shortly, eyeing taehyung, who was creeping back into the group. you actually kept them in your coat just in case anybody tried to attack you. "i should be heading back soon."

"yeah, you wouldn't want to catch a col-" "why not walk with us for a little bit?" suga started but hoseok jumped in, flashing his cancer-curing grin.

you sighed. "fine, but only for a little bit."

"so, nari, what do you do in your performances that suga thinks is good enough reason to skip practice?" jin said, probably too salty.

you raised an amused smirk. "really? he told me he wasn't busy on saturdays."

suga winced as jin's salty glare bore into his neck. "really? is that so?"

"stop acting like a mother, jinnie." jimin said, poking jin's arm. "let the young boy go forth and see his true lover."

"i'm older than you, and since when were we lovers?" suga said, raising an eyebrow at the blonde. 

"c'mon, you two make it so obvious." jimin countered, which was met with nods from the rest of the group.

you blinked at them. "huh?"

"are you serious? we all saw your faces. don't bother hiding it." taehyung teased, and you eyed him, fiddling with the scissors in your pocket. of course, you were never going to actually stab him, but it was good for threats.

"you know what?" you said, plugging in your earbuds once again. "i'm heading back now. like jin-ae said, feel free to visit anytime." you walked away, your boots dragging slightly on the stone path.

your eyes were now drooping after your talk with the members. and even though you went out for a walk to think, you came back with more unanswered questions than you started with. as you walked out of the park, a cold breeze hit you, making your hair fly around your face. the trees must have blocked the wind before.

you moved along, your mind on autopilot, and soon you were back at the back door. you pried it open, careful not to make too much sound and quietly snuck back up to your room. you had a lot to think about, but those things could wait until tomorrow.


	10. Chapter 10

after you got back from your walk, a week of pure boredom by yourself in the shop followed until saturday rolled around. jin-ae was at school, trying to complete her final year, so she couldn't keep you company or help you with anything. the good news was that she brought dinner home with her most days.

most of the time when customers weren't there, you brought your guitar downstairs and wrote new songs. unanswered questions, you found, were a great fuel when it came to song writing. and you had plenty of them after the weekend.

for example: did suga actually like you or were the members just fucking around?

there was no way to be sure about it, except for asking. and you did not have the guts to ask. speaking of the group, they didn't come by at all that week, and for some reason you missed them. even if you'd only known them for a couple of days, it felt like you'd known them all your life.

it was when you were contemplating all this that you came across an idea. why not play an acoustic version of one of their songs at the park? it didn't seem like a bad idea, so why not? you listened to a few of their songs, careful not to use too much data and chose a song. this one wouldn't be too hard to write for an acoustic version, so you went with it. after you'd written it out and learnt it, you practiced as often as you could, and bam. you learnt a new song.

and now it was saturday, the day dedicated to getting up early and playing in a freezing park. you made your sandwich as usual, and grabbed a water bottle. you stuffed them in your coat as you grabbed your suitcase with your gear and guitar that you'd left by the back door, and headed out, not bothering to wake jin-ae up.

you yawned loudly as you entered the main street, making your eyes water. it wasn't that far to the park, as in, only another two streets over. while you were walking there, you wondered if yoongi was going to be there today, skipping practice.

you smiled to yourself like an idiot as you set up that morning. you didn't know why, but the thought of him being there made your heart do cartwheels. you did a quick sound check, using the song you'd practiced all week.

_as the curtain falls,_

_i run out of breath_

_letting out a sigh,_

_my mind can't forget_

_thinking about if i messed up today_

_the audience, did they like our stage today?_

your sweet voice echoed through the park as it did every week. but this time you felt strangely giddy. as usual, you ate your breakfast as you waited for people to arrive. you took a long swig of water before grabbing your guitar and starting the first song.

through the whole day, you looked for yoongi as you played. he wasn't there. no, not today. **(LOL I HAD TO-)** but in his place, it seemed, there was an envelope in your guitar case. you quickly packed up, eager to read said letter. in a couple of minutes, you'd gotten home, greeted jin-ae (who was actually doing her job), and gone upstairs to "change." in reality, you were going to see what was in the envelope.

you ripped open the seam and pulled out the contents. there was a scribbled and rather comical note, a letter, and... a couple of notes. you read the note first.

_nari~_

_suga asked me to drop this off while on my break. i saw he had a letter inside but i didn't have time to read it. shame. hehehe._

_i noticed the money too. poor suga... he spends his salary on his lover... sniff..._

_anyway, you can thank me later for the delivery service. (^.^)_

below the note was hoseok's signature. you raised an eyebrow at it. you didn't even know what to think, so you just moved on to suga's letter. as you unfolded the letter, a pamphlet and another note fell out. you decided to read the letter first after picking up the other things.

_nari,_

_i'm sorry i couldn't come to your performance today, but i feel like if i missed another practice jin would have my head... i would've texted you to say i wasn't going to be there, but then i realized we never exchanged phone numbers. there's a note that i'm sure you noticed, and it has all the members' numbers._

_the other thing is something i found the other day, and i thought you might be interested._

_until next time._

his signature was messily scrawled underneath. why did he think it was necessary for him to come to your performances? he didn't _have_ to come, especially if jin was getting pissed at him. you picked up the note. there was seven numbers on there, accompanied by seven sets of initials. you vaguely remembered who was who, but you recognized yoongi's first. you typed his number into your phone.

\--------------

 **nari:**

i got your letter. thank you. also, don't feel obliged to come to my performances. no one said you had to go lol

**suga:**

i felt a tad guilty

**nari:**

only a tad~?

**suga:**

okay, maybe a lot.

did you add the other members yet?

**nari:**

not yet...

i only just got home

gimme a break

**suga:**

i'll tell them to expect a text sooner or later lol

did you look at the pamphlet?

**nari:**

no...

one sec

\--------------

you fished out the pamphlet from the other things in the envelope. you quickly scanned over it. it was about an audition for a tv show.

\--------------

**nari:**

audition?

**suga:**

just a thought.

oh... jin wants smth

i have to go

ttyl

\--------------

the pamphlet was all that occupied your thoughts during dinner. you had no clue how to ask jin-ae about it, since she'd ask you where you got the idea from and you'd have to say from suga. you would never live down the teasing. in the end, you ended up falling asleep, wondering what it would be like to sing as a profession instead of a hobby.


	11. Chapter 11

"why is the day moving so slow?" you asked sleepily as jin-ae walked past you, sweeping the floor from some customers that had tread dirt everywhere. you were resting your head on the counter, having given up on wiping it and instead resigned to whining and singing along to the radio.

"i don't know." jin-ae whined back, sweeping the dirt out the door and onto the street. it had been a mostly quiet day, with only a family of four wanting to get their children instruments and an elderly couple interrupting you. that was, until he rocked up.

you didn't recognize him, but apparently jin-ae did, as she rushed over to him and gave him a rib crushing hug. he had black hair that fell into his eyes, and he honestly looked like he had just walked out of his emo phase. he was taller than you and jin-ae, but that wasn't really a big feat to accomplish. you raised an eyebrow as the two cuddled, taking a sip from your tea that you'd brought downstairs.

"so," you put the cup down, "jin-ae, you wanna introduce me?" you leant forward over the desk, an amused smirk on your face as jin-ae spun around, blushing.

"nari, this is min-hyuk, a friend from school." jin-ae said, gesturing to the male behind her who waved at you.

you wiggled your eyebrows at her, aiming to get payback for last week's dinner with BTS. "oh? just a friend?"

both min-hyuk and jin-ae went red. "y-yes..." min-hyuk mumbled, stuffing his hands into his coat and looking away from you.

jin-ae, meanwhile, jumped to defend herself. "what? just like that _friend_ you've been texting during the day?"

she'd caught you this morning messaging suga and you had to come clear, explaining how you got his number. you stumbled a bit over your words. "th-that is my friend!" you protested, a blush creeping onto your cheeks.

as jin-ae raised her eyebrow and opened her mouth to fire back a response, min-hyuk put a hand on her shoulder. "i'm just here because i said i'd take her out to dinner one night after you guys were closed." you smirked, looking towards the cuckoo clock. 3:00. it was an hour early.

"you're a bit early there, but sure. go for it, sis." you snickered. jin-ae brightened and raced upstairs to get her coat. while she was gone, you made quick strides to min-hyuk and brought his collar down to hiss in his ear. "hurt my sister and you're fucking dead. got it?" he whimpered and nodded. you let him go with a normal grin and headed back to the desk, just in time for jin-ae to race back downstairs with her coat.

she grinned back at you and min-hyuk tried hard to smile at you, but still looked nervous. they left the shop together, and soon you were on your own, only the sounds of PRINSTIN's Weewoo from the radio to accompany you. the sun was already starting to set outside, sending orange hues through the shop. the news you'd caught earlier on the radio said you might get snow in a couple of days. you dully wondered if you were as you downed the rest of your tea.

since there wasn't a customer in sight, you went upstairs to wash the cup out. halfway through rinsing it though, the bell attached to the door rung. "coming!" you shouted, turning the tap off and placing the cup gently on the drying rack. you jumped down the stairs, flattening your skirt as you went down. you stuffed your hands in your leather jacket as you went to find the customer, who had obviously wandered off. it was getting colder, and the inside of the shop was no longer warm enough, and you definitely did not have the money for heating.

as you looked for the customer, your search was interrupted by a crashing sound near the guitars. your heart jumping into your throat and your head already calculating the repair price, you raced over to find namjoon, guiltily looking down at jin, who was on the floor, having caught a guitar that fell down. the crashing sound came from the actual display, which was now in pieces on the floor near jin.

you blinked at the two of them for a minute. why were they here? you snapped out of your questions and went to help the two. you gently picked up the guitar and put it on the counter, checking for damages. thankfully, jin had saved it. the same couldn't be said for the stand, however.

you picked it up as jin brushed himself off. you scowled at it. it was mainly the hinges that were broken, and one of the pegs too. nothing that couldn't be fixed in a matter of minutes with your little tool box. as you fussed over the stand, the other members had wandered out from where they were to see what had happened. you already had your tools out, engrossed in fixing the stand. unfortunately, you were going wrong in thinking it could be fixed in a few minutes with your tools. one of the bolts was completely and utterly fucked. you would most likely have to buy a new stand.

you sighed, running a hand through your hair and looked up at the members, who'd crowded around the counter. "afternoon."


	12. Chapter 12

"afternoon." you said, meeting each of their eyes.

"i'm so sorry." namjoon said, looking genuinely upset as he gazed down at the broken mess of the guitar stand.

you shook your head. "don't worry about it. i'll just have to get a new stand, not a big deal." which was true, it wasn't a big deal. the big deal was the price. "anyway, what brings you here on this fine evening?"

"we wanted to see if you two wanted to go out again. where's jin-ae?" jungkook said happily.

you smirked, memories of this afternoon resurfacing. "she's out with a friend from school. a guy friend. who blushed hard when i asked if they were more than friends, mind you." you giggled.

hoseok matched your smirk. "so much love blooming in the air..."

you shot him a warning glare as jimin spoke up. "so, do you wanna come out with us?"

you shrugged. "why not? what did you guys have in mind?"

"there's a China Town not that far from here and i've wanted to go for a while, but haven't had the chance!" taehyung practically jumped up and down.

"sounds cool. i'll write jin-ae a note saying i'm out then i'll be right with you. don't break anything..." you ended with a sigh, heading upstairs to find paper and a pen. you left the note on the table and headed back downstairs. thankfully, they hadn't broken anything else, but to be sure, they had made namjoon go outside.

shaking your head at them, you headed outside after them. "so, which way?" you said, pulling your hair into a not-so-neat bun so the wind wouldn't make you eat your hair. you noticed that suga hadn't spoken a word to you, and it bothered you slightly.

"this way!" taehyung shouted like a little kid, starting to race off in the direction before jin stopped him. the eight of you fell into step on the pathway, and once again, you found yourself next to suga.

"sup?" you said, grinning at suga, who turned to look at you, his aqua hair hanging loosely in his face.

he shrugged. maybe he wasn't in a good moo- "the others dragged me out of bed for this."

"what? isn't my charming personality reason enough to get out of bed?" you snickered. you dully noticed hoseok smirking at you from ahead. did he think you were flirting...?

"no." suga said bluntly.

"wow. rude." you were a little taken aback. but you honestly couldn't blame him. sleep was the holy mother of all.

jungkook jumped on the two of you, pulling you both into a hug with each of his arms, grinning. "c'mon, you can't keep nari to yourself! let us talk to her." with that, jungkook pulled you back, and soon you were squished between jimin and jungkook.

"hey, nari? how old are you?" jimin asked innocently. 

you rubbed the back of your neck. "not _that_ old..."

"well, let's go by comparison. suga was born in 1993, making him... 24?" jungkook guessed. suga nodded, listening in on your conversation.

you blinked. "i'm 22."

"oooh, we're buddies!" jimin said happily. you looked at him. there was no way this fluff ball was your age... was there?

"we're here!" taehyung shouted excitedly from the front, interrupting your thoughts. ahead of you, the lights from the China Town had just started to come on, creating an even softer hue to the dusk. it was slowly getting darker by the minute. various stalls lined the street, with everything ranging from food to souvenirs. some couples and families were already loitering around, window shopping.

as if you were reading each other's minds, you and jin immediately went over to the closest food stall, staring at the delicacies behind the glass case. inside there were little cakes, and you could practically feel the calories jumping out at you. the one closest to you was a chocolate cake, decorated with white frosting on the top and small piece of waffle sticking out. it looked delicious and your mouth watered just by looking at it. you didn't even want to imagine how much it was.

"hey, nari? do you want a slice of cake as well?" jin asked, turning to you.

you looked up at him, your eyes sparkling. "yesssss." you said, vigorously pointing to the chocolate cake. jin laughed at you, and ordered two slices from the vendor. you thanked him repeatedly before he said it was really no big deal. after you'd gotten your cake, which was served on little napkins, you went back to the group, who were looking at the two of you, clearly exasperated. not caring even a little bit, you stuck your fork into the corner and started eating. it tasted like heaven. the flavors of the cake and the icing mixed perfectly together.

"you guys are missing out." you said to the others as you swallowed.

"agreed." jin mumbled, stuffing more cake into his mouth.

the group had started to move on again, with taehyung and jungkook leading the way. suga had somehow fallen into step behind you. "can i have a bite?"

you blinked at him. "sure, i guess." you handed him the plastic fork and he took a bit off, pulling his mask down to eat it. he handed the fork back while you grinned. "good, right?" suga nodded.

jin, who had overheard your conversation, spun around to face you, a gleam in his eyes. "i guess you could say it's-"

"no." suga stopped him, but he kept talking anyway.

"- _sweet as suga_."


	13. Chapter 13

"- _sweet as suga_." 

suga groaned, putting his head back. you covered your mouth as you quietly snickered. you noticed as a pair of girls gave your group a curious look. did they recognize them? you had no time to wonder as hoseok put an arm around your shoulder. "nari, where to now?"

you blinked. "i wasn't aware i was in charge. you guys can go on, i'll follow." you grinned, swallowing your last bit of cake.

hoseok shrugged, heading on after taehyung, who'd run over to a small arcade with jimin. you laughed for no reason other than it seemed so like them to head for the arcade and raced to catch up with them, suga following, but not really bothering to run. you jogged on the spot at the entrance, waiting for him. "c'mon, man! you just gotta-" you almost started laughing as the joke popped into your head. "- _run, run, run_." you sang.

"not you too!" he whined, but ran anyway to catch up. the two of you were the last ones of your group in the arcade. jungkook was already in a heated match with jimin over a basketball machine, while jin and namjoon were over playing a game of air hockey, jin winning by literal luck and what looked like witchcraft. taehyung, meanwhile, was absorbed in one of those machines where a light spins around and you have to get the light to land in between the arches to win the jackpot. hoseok, was of course, running towards Dance Dance Revolution. as soon as you spotted it, you ran there too. when you were still in school, you and a group of your friends went to a similar arcade and played DDR. you usually lost, but no surprise there.

you landed on the machine next to hoseok, and he quickly inserted the necessary coins. you would have paid, but there was no way you could have the money to spend here. "what song?" hoseok said, interrupting your train of thought.

"i don't know. choose any you like. you paid, after all." you grinned at him. he smirked right back, a gleam in his eyes. it dawned on you that letting someone from the dance line pick was probably not the best idea. he scrolled down to the last one on the list and picked it before you could read what song it was.

you copied hoseok's actions by steadying yourself on the steel bar behind you. you had a bad feeling. the song started, and it was fairly easy. you and hoseok were evenly matched... for a while anyway. there was a break in the music before it dropped. the beat dropped like a hurricane, and with the hurricane came what seemed like a thousand notes. at that moment, you knew you had made a grave mistake by letting hoseok choose. you tried your best, but you missed quite a few. as soon as the song was over, you slumped off the machine, almost onto suga, who had been watching the whole time. while you were busy trying to not miss the steps, the rest of the members had gathered around.

"me next!" jungkook said, hopping onto the machine as you leant against the wall, deflated. never again. you got up from the wall to watch the match between the two dancers.

"why'd you choose a slow song for him?" you said, exasperated. the song in fact, wasn't slow, but it was slower than the torture you had just faced. you watched the two dancers in amazement. "how the fuck can you move your legs that fast?"

"witchcraft." jin and namjoon said at the same time.

the two finished their match in a blink of an eye. hoseok, who was still full of energy, bounced down from the game. "what now?"

"let's keep looking around!" jimin said, heading out ahead of the others. the rest of you followed him around the China Town, going into weird antique stores and stopping by a few more food stalls. you checked your wallet for money. you'd like to get jin-ae something, but you barely had enough money for groceries, let alone gifts.

you scowled down at your wallet and stuffed it back into your jacket, trying not to look too disappointed. you didn't notice, but suga, who had been staring at you, noticed your look. he wanted to do something, but there would be no way to help without getting teased later on by the members.

you checked your phone for the time. it was a lot later than you'd thought, as in, "jin-ae should be in bed by now" late. unless, she was still out with her school friend. "guys!" you said, gathering their attention. they all turned around to look at you with scary synchronization. "i should go now, since i need to take care of the shop while jin-ae's at school. i'll see you later!" you walked off as they all waved at you. somehow, no one had managed to recognize the group.

within a few minutes, you were nearly at home. you unlocked the door and went up the stairs. if jin-ae was back, she wasn't in the living room. you quietly creaked open her door. she was fast asleep, snoring loudly. you shut her door and went to your own room to settle down for the night, replaying the night in your mind. 


	14. Chapter 14

you were half asleep when your phone buzzed, signaling a text. you groaned, slamming your hand around your nightstand, trying to find the phone.

you finally located the phone and shrunk back from the bright light. turning down the brightness, you noticed a text from suga.

\---------------

**suga:**

nari~~~~~

**nari:**

... what?

**suga:**

i need to tell rell you something. it s important.

**nari:**

uhh...

are you drunk or smth?

**suga:**

mayybe

**nari:**

oh my god

is anyone with you?

**suga:**

pffffff

that hobi boi

**nari:**

... hoseok?

**suga:**

yeah that one

anyway

i need to tellu soemth

**nari:**

okay?

but first, where are you?

**suga:**

unimportant

**nari:**

very important

**suga:**

at a bar or some shit

anyway

**nari:**

WHAT BAR

**suga:**

that one in the china town

yknwo

we passed ti

ANYWAY

**nari:**

stay there. i'm going to get you two.

**suga:**

hdksbduavdi

u no fun

**nari:**

whatever.

\---------------

you sighed and got dressed once again. you put on the same clothes from earlier that had been chucked on the floor, because it didn't really matter if suga and hoseok were out drunk. you paused at your door. you didn't know where they lived, and you couldn't just bring them back here.

you fished around the various papers in your room until you found the note. the one with all the members' numbers. you looked for who would be the most responsible, yet wouldn't bite their heads off. from that, your options were limited to taehyung, jungkook, and jimin. for some odd reason, you chose jimin.

\---------------

**nari:**

jimin. it's nari. suga messaged me and he's with hoseok, and they're both drunk. what's the address for your dorms?

**jimin:**

nari~~

go get them and i'll send you the address. catch them a taxi, they'll have money on them somewhere hehehe

\---------------

you shoved on your jacket as your phone vibrated, signaling the text of the address from jimin. you quietly snuck out of the house again and soon you were on the street, walking back towards the China Town. you recognized what bar suga was talking about. but the question was, why was hoseok and him on their own? an even better question; _who thought it was a good idea to leave them on their own?_

you came up to the bar, and opened the door, desperate to get out of the wind. you immediately recognized the two, huddled in a corner table. sighing, you walked up to them. "are you two done drinking?"

they both immediately turned to you. they both had idiotic, shit eating grins plastered on. hoseok hiccupped. "lookie lookie. it's nariiiii. did you come racing here after suga told you the news?" he said in between hiccups.

"what news? i came to take you back to the dorms." you raised an eyebrow.

hoseok slammed a hand on the table at suga. "you didn't tell her?!" he said, with several voice cracks.

yoongi hiccupped. "i _tried_ , but _someone_ kept interrupting me. 'where are you, suga?'" he said, in a terrible copy of your voice.

you raised your eyebrow again. "i don't sound like that. in any case, we need to get you two back to the dorms. how much money do you have on you?"

hoseok literally chucked his wallet at you. the whole thing. you opened it to find it filled with cash. you shrugged. "come on, you two. time to go."

hoseok, who apparently hadn't had as much as suga, shrugged and got up. the older, however, refused to move. "suga." you said in a whining tone. he grumbled a bit before getting up... and almost fell over. you caught him just in time, ducking under his shoulder to help him stand. he was a lot lighter than you thought he was.

you nodded at the door towards hoseok. he quickly opened it for the two of you and you stumbled into the street, suga practically putting his whole weight on you. hoseok followed you... only to walk straight into a pole. you looked at him in utter disappointment. "do i need to call jin?"

"no!" both of the drunks immediately shouted at you. "he'll kill us!" hoseok whined, grabbing onto your free arm, begging you not to call him.

"then sort your shit out and hail a cab." you said bluntly, and hoseok jumped to his feet, signaling a passing cab. it pulled over and you slid suga on the far side and hoseok slid himself next to you, making you sit in the dreaded middle. "can you take us here?" you said, showing the cabbie the address. he nodded and pulled back out onto the road.

the dorms were surprisingly closer than you expected. within a few minutes, you'd arrived, gotten the drunks out of the car, paid the driver and were now standing in front of them. hoseok wasted no time in running ahead to go in, but missed the door and smashed into the wall. you sighed and hoisted him up on your other shoulder so he wouldn't run into anything else. the building was a small house, and looked fairly normal from the outside. it was two stories, and the lights were only on on the first floor. you got hoseok to knock and you heard the shuffling of feet before jimin opened the door.

"nari, nic-" he said, and opened his mouth to say more, but you cut him off.

"take him, and for the love of god don't let him run into any more walls. which way is suga's room?" you handed hoseok over to jimin, who held onto him by the shoulder as he tried to walk off again.

"on the second floor, turn left and his is the last one on the left. jin-hyung and suga-hyung get their own rooms." jimin said, taking hoseok through the house and up the stairs. you closed the door behind you and then followed jimin up the stairs. suga mumbled something next to you, but his words were so slurred you couldn't understand him.

you followed jimin's instructions and opened the door to suga's room. there wasn't much in there. in fact, it reminded you of your room. there was a piano in one corner, and a bed with the covers pulled back in another. sheet music littered the floor from one end of the room to the other. there was a window that was wide open, blowing the curtains around. you gently helped suga onto his bed and then closed the window, drawing the curtains.

suga mumbled something again, but this time you were able to hear it. "nari?" it sounded like he'd calmed down a bit.

you turned around and went to sit down beside him. the moonlight from outside gently drifted across the room, creating a nice blue-ish hue. the both of you stared at it for a while in silence, just thinking. "i'm tired." suga mumbled, breaking the silence.

"hop into bed then." you said, getting up. he shrugged off his jacket and you wordlessly took it, placing it on the piano stool. by the time you turned around, suga was already curled up under the covers. you smiled at the sight. he looked like a little kid.

you'd turned around to walk out when he spoke up again. "nari, come back." he whined. you raised an eyebrow. he did _not_ seem like the type to whine.

"why?"

"why not?"

you sighed and walked back over. you went to sit back down, but as you sat down on the bed again, suga somehow managed to tilt you so you were lying down, gently pressed against him. you squeaked slightly and yoongi snuggled against you. you didn't quite understand it, but... it did feel rather comfortable to be hugged like that.

what were you thinking? you need to get home! you need to man the ship tomorrow while the second mate is out at school! but... it was really comfortable right here...

"nari... do you want to know what the important news was?" yoongi mumbled. he sounded rather sleepy.

"what?"

"i love you."

he mumbled the three simple words as he fell asleep. you could feel his body rising and falling with the rhythm of sleep right behind you. it took a while for the words to sink in, but when they did... you were doubtful and shocked. not doubtful because how could someone love you, but doubtful as, was that really yoongi talking, or was it the alcohol you could still smell on his breath as he breathed against your neck, the breath slightly weaving its way through your hair and caressing your ear?

either way, there was no way you could go home now with yoongi's arms wrapped tight around you. not that you felt like leaving anyway. you snuggled up against him and quickly fell asleep, not even thinking about what issues would arise the next morning, and instead choosing to live in this happy moment.


	15. Chapter 15

you woke up gently with no alarm for the first time in months. you almost forgot where you were until your eyes focused, suga's practically bare room coming into view. someone had opened the window a bit, the breeze blowing the curtains gently in the early morning sun. it took you a solid minute to realize there were no longer arms wrapped around you.

you sat up sleepily, rubbing your eyes. you felt your hands around your jacket, looking for your phone. as soon as you found it, you pulled it out, seeing the time, several missed calls from jin-ae, and a text from suga.

before you could call jin-ae back, the notification from suga was practically itching to be checked. like, it felt like there was something important you needed to know.

\---------------

**suga:**

i don't know what i did last night. i can't remember

my guess is something mortally embarrassing

anyway, by the time you're awake, we should be all out for breakfast

\---------------

you knew immediately what he was implying. after all, if all the members were downstairs when you went down... that would not look good. you decided to ring jin-ae back when you were outside. you nervously opened the door to the hallway, peeking to see if anyone was there. silence. you nervously shut the door behind you and headed down the stairs, peeking around the first floor. still silence. taking your chance, you headed out of the house and onto the street. you passed through without an issue and no one out gave you a weird look. as your nerves settled back down, you picked up your phone to ring jin-ae.

_brr. brr. brr. brr. br-beep!_

_"nari_ , _what the fuck?! where are you? i've been trying to call you all morning!"_ jin-ae hissed on the other side.

"sorry. two of our friends got drunk so i had to rescue them after i got back last night. and then i kinda got stuck there all night." she'd know who you were talking about. after all, those were the only friends you shared.

_"oh god. are they alright?"_

"they should be fine now. i don't know about hoseok, though. he kept running into everything. as in, every wall, door, and pole." you sighed, running a hand over your eyes as you tried to figure out which way to go. you vaguely remembered where to go from when the cabbie took you to the dorms last night, but it was the middle of the night then. the streets looked totally different in daylight.

 _"anyway, you head back home. class is about to start. see ya, sis!"_ the phone clicked, signaling that you'd been hung up on. you sighed and turned your full attention to getting back to the shop. if your memory served you right, you were a street or two away from the China Town. the streets were fairly busy considering it was a monday morning, and it took a while before you were able to cross the street.

your memory was right, and soon you were heading down the street of the China Town. at least you knew your way back from here. the China Town looked vastly different in broad daylight. for instance, the food stalls didn't hold the same magic or the same alluring aura they had the night before, as if they'd just come out of a movie. now, they only looked like ordinary food vendors. you hurriedly made your way down the street. it gave you the creeps seeing such a fantastic place look so ordinary.

within a couple of minutes, you were back at the shop, opening the door. you turned the sign over and the lights on. showtime on another boring monday.

you had practically fallen asleep on the bench that afternoon when jin-ae opened the door. you heard her drop her bag immediately and then felt her crushing weight drop onto you, knocking away all your breath. after a while, she let go so you could stand. only to be greeted with a sharp slap to the face. "i was worried about you, idiot!"

"sorry..." you mumbled, rubbing the bright red mark jin-ae's hand had left.

she shook her head, folding her arms. "doesn't matter anymore, i guess. you're alright. what about the boys?"

"it was hoseok and suga that got drunk. suga was the one who messaged me, and i managed to get out of him where they were. in the end, i caught them a cab with hoseok's money from when he literally threw his wallet at me. and after i got them back to their place, i more or less got stuck looking after them." you ended with a lie. there was literally no way in the world you were going to admit to jin-ae that you'd _slept_ with suga. even saying it in your mind sounded mortally embarrassing.

jin-ae shrugged. "sounds like they're fine now. sis, can you start dinner while i get out of this drag?" she said, referring to her uniform that consisted of a short skirt, button up white shirt, black blazer and a tie. jin-ae lightly punched you on the arm before grabbing her bag and racing up the stairs.

you stretched before heading up to start dinner. jin-ae came out after a few minutes in her night clothes and scrolling through something on her phone as she started making tea. "anything interesting happening in the world?" you asked, taking a quick taste of the meal. it tasted alright. not the best, but certainly not the worst.

"i'm looking now." she said, taking a taste of the meal as well. she made a "mm" noise before going back to her phone. your attention was only back on dinner for a second before jin-ae made a squeaking noise and tugged on your sleeve. you looked over at her phone.

a news article was opened up. the bold headline read, " **BigHit Announces Details for BTS Comeback**." "ooh. can you read it out loud?" you said, turning to do the final things for dinner.

"okay." jin-ae cleared her throat. " _this morning, BigHit revealed that their hit group BTS will stage a comeback in a month. the date has not been set yet, but other idol groups are already scrambling to reschedule their comebacks to make way for BTS's supposedly insane fans. the comeback will be the group's 5th mini album, entitled Love Yourself: Her._ " she finished.

"dang." you commented, bringing the dinner plates out to your small table. jin-ae followed with two cups of tea. "shouldn't they be getting ready for the comeback rather than messing around with us and getting drunk?"

"yes." jin-ae grumbled. you doubted it was the 'messing around with us' part that she was upset about. "you should tell suga to stop fucking around."

you laughed. "probably." you brought the bowl of food closer to your face to hide your blush at the mention of the male's name. you didn't know, but jin-ae caught your blush still and smirked.


	16. Chapter 16

why did weekdays have to be so boring? with nothing to do except listen to the radio's boring drawl, you found yourself replaying the last couple of weeks in your head. to think, just over two weeks ago, you had no clue who the man coming to your performances was and why he left so much money. and now you were friends with one of the most popular idol groups.

going over the last few weeks also reminded you of the things you'd forgotten to do. like add the other members' phone numbers, and have a proper look at the audition flyer suga had got you. the audition was next month, and it was to appear on a tv show. you'd heard of the tv show once or twice before; it was a show dedicated to finding new idols and what not. the winner of said tv show would get a large sum of money and the opportunity to sign a contract with one of the hosting companies. so all in all, not a bad deal.

"might ask jin-ae about that..." you said under your breath as you added the other members' phone numbers. she'd know whether it was a good idea or not, or just flat out persuade you to do it. in any case, yoongi seemed to think it was a good idea.

for the rest of the day until jin-ae got home, you did little to nothing. you practiced some instruments at one point and fiddled with the broken guitar stand at another. you still had to go out and buy a new one, but you really couldn't be bothered. it was a long way to go for one little stand after all.

you were lying down on the counter when you heard the door open. you looked up to see jin-ae with min-hyuk. "sup, lovebirds?" you asked, getting up and stretching.

jin-ae blushed. "come on! we just walked in!"

"yeah, and practically touching." you smirked, propping your head up with your hand as you lent back down on the counter. they both took a step away from each other in opposite directions. you laughed. "come on now, i'm only joking. you guys want tea?"

you headed upstairs, not waiting for an answer. they both followed you anyway. you made tea while jin-ae showed min-hyuk around. you could tell he was still lowkey terrified of you, since he never looked you in the eye. you made the tea and put it on the table as the two walked out, sitting down and taking sips. 

jin-ae excitedly talked to min-hyuk about random things as you scrolled through news articles on your phone. there wasn't much there until you saw... " **BTS J-hope's girlfriend?** " you almost spat out your tea as you saw a photo of the moment when hoseok had run up to you the other night and put his arm around you. oh fuck. ohhhhhh fuck.

you clicked on the article and began reading, " _BTS's j-hope was spotted last sunday with the rest of BTS, his arm wrapped around a young lady. the two were spotted at a China Town, not too far from BigHit Entertainment. what do you think? could this be a girlfriend?_ " raising your eyebrow at the article, you copied the link and sent it to suga.

\---------------

**nari:**

thoughts?

**suga:**

the fuck

**nari:**

same tbh

**suga:**

i'll show it to hoseok

**nari:**

good thinking 99

**suga:**

he agrees

he said he'll talk to the manager tomorrow

**nari:**

hopefully that'll sort everything out

**suga:**

hopefully

anyway

i'm just glad the press didn't find the two of us drunk and you helping us out

that would have been bad

**nari:**

definitely

if they caught one of the times hoseok ran into something

**suga:**

nah that would've been funny

**nari:**

yeah but i'd still feel bad for him

**suga:**

pff

wud

**nari:**

jin-ae brought her "guy friend" home and we're having tea but i'm third wheeling it

**suga:**

we just got home from practice and kookie was insisting on a movie night

so now we're all crowded on the couch watching a movie

**nari:**

sounds much more exciting

**suga:**

probably tbh

**nari:**

i'll leave you to your movie

unless i find anymore fucked articles lol

**suga:**

lol see ya

\---------------

suga closed his phone and tried to pay attention to the movie. not much was happening, so it was very hard to stop his thoughts from straying. he was very tempted earlier to invite you over after you said you were third wheeling it, but he knew it would be awkward...

he still had no clue what he'd done the other night. he was so drunk, he couldn't remember. the only thing he remembered was waking up with you comfortably snuggled in his arms, a soft smile on your face. he had to admit, you were _cute._

yoongi shook his head. nope. nope. no thinking about that now. focus on the movie. except now he'd missed about ten minutes and now had no clue on what was happening. oh well, it wasn't interesting anyway, he thought as he drifted off to sleep against his propped up hand.

back at the shop, you were still scrolling through nothing much of anything on your phone as the two lovebirds kept chatting, probably forgetting you were still in the room. you put down your phone, staring into space as you thought. your mind wandered from song tunes to suga within a flash. you still couldn't get your head around what he'd said the other night... no. nope. everybody say no. you caught your thoughts and threw them back to song tunes. you should probably write a new song soon. that reminded you, you still needed to ask jin-ae what she thought about the audition paper. not much time now, since she was still talking to min-hyuk.


	17. Chapter 17

"are you kidding me? of course it's a good idea!" jin-ae said, slamming her hands on the table. min-hyuk had left a while ago, still refusing to look you in the eyes, so you'd finally gotten an opportunity to talk to jin-ae about the audition.

"it's just that to audition i'd have to go during the day, so you'd have to look after the shop." you said, pulling your sleeves down subconsciously.

jin-ae put her hands on her hips. "as if that's a problem! i'd be happy to ditch the losers at my school for a day!"

you laughed. "well then, i guess i'll audition... i should get more information first, though. and before i forget," jin-ae perked back up, "what's the deal between you and min-hyuk?"

she rolled her eyes at you, slumping back onto the floor. "tell meeee." you said, crawling over to her and poking her.

jin-ae rolled over. "okay, maybe i do like him..." she mumbled to the floor. you gave a triumphant shout and stood back up, running a hand through your hair. "but you totally like suga!" she shouted at you back.

you fell silent, and she crawled over to you from her spot on the floor. "tell meeee." she whined, imitating your voice.

you jumped back, laughing at her. "not telling!" you whined right back.

jin-ae slumped onto your foot. "i told _you_ , so it's only fair!"

you moved your foot away from her and bolted to your room, laughing. "no thanks!" you heard jin-ae get up and try to follow you but you slammed the door in her face. you heard her whining from the other side of the door but there was no way you were going to open it. no thanks, feelings.

you turned back and looked at the catastrophe of your room. there was sheet music everywhere. you cleaned it up before flopping down on your bed, taking your phone out. you were spending a lot of time on your phone recently, but that was probably the fault of you finally gaining some more friends. well, any friends, considering you hadn't had any friends since high school, and it's been a while since then.

you searched up the audition and came to the host's official website. reading through it, you eventually found the sign up form. it had to be either mailed or emailed to the address by next week. you read through it, finding out what you had to do. it had basic requirements, which you fit, then a section for personal information. under that it had requirements for the audition. you had to prepare a song and a dance to go with it.

welp. guess you were learning how to dance, now. you got up and went to jin-ae's door. "jin-aeeee? little sisssss?"

"yessss?" she said, opening her door.

"can you teach me how to dance? the audition sheet says you need to prepare a song to sing and dance to, and you're much better than me at dancing." you gave her puppy dog eyes.

she smirked at you. "that depends. you gonna tell me if you like suga?"

you groaned. "okay, fine. maybe. i like him a _little_ bit."

jin-ae squealed. "called it! okay, welcome to my studio." she said, gesturing you into her room. "what song are you gonna do?"

"i need help with that too, obviously." you said, taking a seat on her bed.

jin-ae grabbed her phone, scrolling through her music. "oh yeah, i forgot you live under a rock. let's see... a solo artist song?"

you nodded and she continued scrolling. how much music did she have...? "ooh~ what about this?" she asked, tapping on one and turning her volume up. it sounded quite good.

"yeah, why not? what's it called?" you tilted your head.

"Gashina by Sunmi. also known as the fucking queen." jin-ae said, putting her phone down to stretch. "the chorus is the easiest part to learn, so let's start there. watch me." she pressed play and you watched her as she danced the chorus. it looked fairly simple from what you could see.

"okay, so, what you do-" jin-ae guided you through the chorus in excessive detail until she thought that you'd gotten it completely right. which took a while. it was late by the time the two of you had finished, so you headed back to your room and downloaded the song for yourself. you obviously needed to learn the lyrics. you silently wondered to yourself if suga was going to like it... huh. maybe jin-ae was right. maybe you did have feelings for him.

you laughed to yourself as you got into bed to sleep. maybe.

~

"come onnnnn. tell meeee." hoseok begged, grinning from ear to ear.

"still no." suga replied, his voice as dead as his expression. hoseok had come into his room late at night, with a shit eating grin on his face. apparently, he found it weird how suga sounded so pissed when he'd shown hoseok the article earlier and it had taken him this long to come to the sound conclusion that suga actually _did_ like you.

"then why'd you sound so pissed earlier?" hoseok whined, belly flopping next to suga on his bed.

suga raised an eyebrow. "because two of my friends got involved in a rumor i _know_ wasn't true?" 

hoseok propped himself up into a position that greatly resembled "draw me like one of your french girls." "sounds reasoning. but come on~ i can tell, you know?"

"if i tell you, will you leave?" the older sighed.

"yep." the idiotic grin was back. but the truth was, it had never really left in the first place.

suga ran a hand through his hair. "yeah, sure. i guess. now get out." hoseok scuttled out of the room, giggling like a school girl as suga flopped back onto his bed in defeat.


	18. Chapter 18

the week rolled into wednesday with nothing happening.

wednesday rolled into thursday and still nothing happened. honestly, it was about as interesting as watching paint dry. until jin-ae got home, that is.

"grab your coat, we're going out!" she said, as soon as she came in through the door at the end of the day.

you hopped over from the pianos. "wait, what? why?"

"secret!" jin-ae giggled, pushing you upstairs. you sighed as she ran off to her room to change, leaving you in the hallway. you shrugged on your coat and hoped that this wouldn't be something dangerous or something that would leave you two broke. well, broke _r_.

jin-ae ran back out of her room, fully dressed and coat in hand. "let's go!" she said, grabbing your wrist and taking off down the stairs, dragging you with her. somehow, the two of you made it out of the shop unscathed. jin-ae slowed down when the two of you were on the street. you followed a step behind her, still confused as to where you were going.

wait, aren't you practically the boss of the household? why is she telling you where to go? well, she obviously had a plan, and there was no point in backing out now. she looked too excited. jin-ae rounded a corner with you in close procession. you were still on the main streets.

just when you weren't expecting it, jin-ae took a sharp left into a side street. you quickly followed her as she slipped into a tall, narrow building. there wasn't anything in the building except for two flights of stairs, one leading up, and one leading down. jin-ae went straight down without hesitation.

"uh..." you began but jin-ae merely grinned at you over her shoulder. you hesitantly followed her down into the darkness. you heard the flicker of a light switch and the room came into view. it was a dance studio. it was smaller than what it would've been for a group like BTS to practice, but it was fine for you and jin-ae. it had a mirror on one side, and a small storage closet on the left, along with several power plugs for speakers and what not. "okay, why and how did you find this?"

"you need help and a friend's letting us use it. more like, he's paying it for the night." she ended with a grin, taking off her coat and tossing it to the side.

"what fr-" "i'm here!" you started to say, but was cut off by a cheery voice dashing down the stairs behind you. turning around, you found you were less than a meter away from hoseok. you jumped back in surprise. honestly, you should have expected something like this.

he grinned at the two of you, a gym bag around his shoulder. "should i be worried...?" you asked, turning to jin-ae, who was grinning just like hoseok.

"aw... i'm only here to help..." hoseok pouted, tossing jin-ae the gym bag.

jin-ae opened the bag, and sifted through, finding a small portable speaker. "i thought you said _he_ was coming too?" she said, plugging her phone into the speaker.

"yeah, soon." hoseok said, running a hand through his hair. you squinted at the both of them in suspicion before hoseok loudly clapped his hands. "so! nari, you need help with an audition where you have to dance, right?"

"jin-ae put you up to this, didn't she?" you said, raising your eyebrow. except, there was no way for her to contact him, unless...

"sorry, sis. i stole the paper with their numbers on it from your room when you were sleeping the other day." she giggled behind you.

you rolled your eyes, shrugging off your coat and dumping it on top of jin-ae's. "well, might as well get help while it's here." jin-ae and hoseok gave a little cheer, the former running over and starting the song. over the past few days, jin-ae had taught you the first verse.

the familiar intro entered and you started the dance. you thought the dance was quite sexual at the start and had protested slightly when jin-ae went to teach you it, but she insisted you could nail it. you watched yourself in the mirror like you watched jin-ae when she was dancing, trying to find and correct your mistakes.

 _"can't nobody stop me now, no, try me_. _"_ Sunmi sang through the speaker. you nailed the facial expressions and hoseok and jin-ae gave a little cheer for you. you were so fixed on yourself and the dance that you didn't notice one of the other members, who had just walked in, was now standing in front of the stairs, awestruck. jin-ae smirked at him as you kept dancing, completely oblivious.

 _"are you crazy, stupid, or both? this pretty girl, why you leaving her?_ _"_ bam. your facial expression immediately changed as the dance break started. "charisma!" hoseok shouted behind you, syllable by syllable, making you break your expression and laugh.

 _"baby, you're leaving, gashina, come and go so easily, gashina."_ you sang along. _"said you'd never go, leave me alone, gashina, gashina."_ what you knew ended, and you ran a hand through your now messy hair, laughing. jin-ae was still smirking at the other member who was still by the stairs, his mouth hanging open. he shook his head out of his awestruck state and turned his head to hoseok, mouthing _'really?'_ with a scowl on his face. he'd figured out what they were up to.

meanwhile, you were now lying on the floor, for no other reason than it was a cold floor and you were sweating. such things should be treated as a gift. jin-ae cleared her throat, causing you to look up at her. she nodded in the direction of the member who had come in and you looked over, your brain not fully processing.

"hey, suga." you said, your head flopping back down onto the floor. "wait, suga?!" you sat bolt upright, finally taking in what you were seeing. you glared over at jin-ae, several murder techniques being thrown around in your head.

jin-ae shrugged, smirking. "we thought you'd enjoy the company." so her and hoseok were in on this together... you sighed, realizing what suga had realized a few minutes ago. they were totally trying to set you two up, weren't they?


	19. Chapter 19

"we should play a game before we teach you the second verse." jin-ae said happily.

"no. nope. nuh-uh. remember what happened last time?" you said, sitting up, your long hair falling in front of your shoulders. jin-ae and hoseok happily came and sat on either side of you, making three sides of a square. looks like you were playing the game whether you wanted to or not.

"yep. now, come on. let's play. suga-hyung, sit down." hoseok said, flashing one of his famous grins.

suga stuffed his hands into his pockets. "i'm not playing."

"mmm, yes you are, or i'll tell jin-hyung about the time we got drunk and i'll leave myself out of it."

that did something. suga grumbled and sat down opposite you, shrugging his coat off. it seemed neither of you were very happy about this, but the truth was, neither of you could stop your hearts from practically jumping out of your throats.

"now, in here," jin-ae began, stretching back to the gym bag and pulling out a small lunch container, "i have a selection of dares. nari, you first." she thrust the container towards you, and you picked one of the folded pieces of paper with a sigh.

_do seven minutes in heaven with the person opposite you_.

_could this be anymore set up_ , you thought as you looked between the paper and suga, who was sitting opposite you. you chucked the paper into the middle of the circle, giving up. hoseok grabbed it and read it aloud for the others. jin-ae squealed and suga groaned, letting his head fall onto his chest. jin-ae and hoseok had, in fact, set it up 100%. the only thing written on the multiple folded up bits of papers was that dare, and they had sat on either side of you to make sure suga sat opposite you.

"lucky for us, there's a storage closet here~" jin-ae said, practically dragging you over to the closet. suga sighed and followed you as jin-ae almost threw you into the closet, closing the door behind the two of you.

the storage room was dark and cramped. several boxes filled with who knows what trapped the both of you in on all sides. the room was clearly not made for two people to be in at the exact same time. which, in hoseok and jin-ae's opinions, made the experience all the more better. because of this, the two of you were awkwardly pressed against each other. you could almost feel suga's breath gently grazing your head.

"those two totally set this up." you broke the silence with an awkward laugh.

"i wouldn't be surprised if they had their ears pressed against the door now." suga whispered back with an equally awkward chuckle. the two of them were actually on the other side of the room, watching a dance video on hoseok's phone, but they had contemplated listening in.

you looked down at the floor, rubbing the back of your neck. "well... what are we gonna do to pass the time?" 

several thoughts ran through suga's head, some of them... ahem, not entirely appropriate. "i feel like i should still apologize face to face for whatever i did when i was drunk." he instead chose to say.

"oh, it's okay, you only whined a lot then basically used me as a teddy bear." you said. suga sighed in relief. he'd thought he'd done _a lot_ worse. there was no way you were going to repeat what he'd told you that night; it would only make this awkward experience ten times as awkward.

"so..." you trailed off awkwardly. nothing said awkward like being locked in a dingy storage room with so little space between the two of you that if you were tall enough, you probably could have knocked his nose by lifting your head. you yawned, and as more of an impulse reaction, lent slightly forward and rested your head on suga's chest.

you couldn't see it, but suga's face lit up. he awkwardly hugged you and the two of you stood in silence for a minute, both of your cheeks redder than a tomato. "i wonder if it's been seven minutes yet...?" you mumbled sleepily.

"i would check for you, but i left my phone in my coat pocket, and that's over on the floor back there." suga mumbled back, gently resting his head on top of yours. you both stayed there, completely content. without either of you noticing, the air of awkwardness had completely dissolved into something beautiful.

but, of course, hoseok had to ruin it. he knocked loudly on the other side of the door. "seven minutes is up~!"

you both immediately let go of each other and shouted, ' _finally_ ,' back at him in perfect synchronization. neither of you felt that way, but you both wished those seven minutes would never end, even if you weren't willing to admit it.

hoseok pried open the door, his usual grin on his face. "did you two have fun~?"

you both glared daggers at him and he pouted as he let you two out. "are you gonna teach me the next verse now?" you asked jin-ae.

"yeah. okay, so here's what you do-" she said, running a hand through her hair before putting her hands on your shoulders and moving your arms where they needed to be.


	20. Chapter 20

"is it worth mentioning that my muscles really hurt?"

"nope! do it again!" jin-ae said happily.

you groaned, preparing to do the second verse again. it wasn't a particularly hard dance, but you'd practically been doing it non-stop since you walked out of the closet with suga. you didn't know exactly how long it'd been, but your muscles were saying an eternity.

suga and hoseok were still watching, giving you pointers and watching. suga was mainly on his phone though, and hoseok didn't seem to mind. his part of the night must have been finished, considering their great and grand plan.

 _"this pretty girl, why you leaving her?"_ you were honestly starting to get sick of Gashina, having been listening to it constantly for the past hour. but according to hoseok and jin-ae, your dancing was still on point, even if your expressions weren't. you were just tired and wanted to go home and sleep. hibernate, really.

you sat down immediately as the second chorus finished. "can we leave now?" you whined.

"yeah, it's getting late." suga joined in, not even looking up from his phone.

"can't you just leave whenever you'd like?" you said, raising an eyebrow.

suga raised his eyebrow right back at you. "yes, but i can't leave hoseok on his own. who knows what he'd do." you had to agree with him on that point, judging by hoseok's fabulous performance of running into everything when he was drunk.

"besides, suga is being kind and giving me a ride," hoseok said, smiling sweetly at suga, who rolled his eyes before looking back down at his phone.

jin-ae sighed. "fine, fine. we'll go. y'all are no fun."

"since when did you say y'all...?" you said, getting your coat off the floor. in all your years of living with her, you didn't think she'd ever say that word.

"since now." she grinned, picking up her own coat from the floor. you rolled your eyes in response as jin-ae packed up hoseok's gym bag and threw it back to him. the two idols lead the line out of the studio and jin-ae flicked the lights off behind you.

ahead of you, suga fished a set of keys out of his jacket. you didn't know why, but it never actually occurred to you that either of them could drive. he made his way over to a black car parked on the side of the road, hoseok practically bunny hopping after him before suddenly stopping and turning to you and jin-ae.

"i have an idea!" he said excitedly.

"oh, no." both you and suga said in unison. jin-ae snickered at the two of you but gestured for hosoek to continue.

"why don't you two join us for a movie marathon on saturday?" he goofily smiled at the two of you. your heart jumped into your throat as you thought of all the things that could happen. as soon as you realized what you were thinking about, you flushed bright red and tried to string words together to form a sentence in your head. thankfully, jin-ae had you covered.

"for real?!" 

"of course!" hoseok shouted back. why were the two of them so loud...?

jin-ae made a squeal for the first time in a while. it'd been so long you almost forgot she was a hardcore fan of them. you gave your younger sister a half smile and ruffled her hair. "sounds good. we'll see you guys later then."

suga nodded at you and hoseok waved happily. could he not do anything without being happy? as the two of them got into suga's car, you turned to jin-ae and promptly punched her arm.

"ow! what was that for?" she said, rubbing the spot.

"stop trying to set me up, god damn it!" your face could be used as christmas lights at this point. jin-ae burst out laughing as you started trudging down the street towards the shop. jin-ae quickly caught up to you and you both walked along the dimly lit side street back onto the main street, which was full of people and bright lights.

the main street was on a hill, with flat areas every so often for intersections. your shop was near the bottom of the street, and the park was at the very bottom and across the road. you'd lived on this street all your life, and you knew all the shop owners around you by name. most of them were friends with your grandparents, and then became friends with you when you moved in.

your grandparents were the ones that originally owned the music shop, not your parents. your parents were doctors, but when your grandparents passed away, they felt too guilty to just sell the place, so your mother gave you the apartment for when you moved out of home.

you reminisced with a dull smile on your face about your childhood with jin-ae and the rest of your family as you reached into your coat for the keys and stepped inside the music shop. if you pictured hard enough, you could picture your grandparents' smiling faces and afternoon card games with cookies and tea. you sure did miss them, but at least you still had jin-ae.


End file.
